LOU
by JmanSharpshot
Summary: A short story I made for English homework but I really like it.


I'm a doctor. Just a regular old doctor in a regular old hospital in Manhattan. At least that's what I have to tell everyone. There's a hidden basement. A place that only the government and the four of us that work there know about. This is where we treat L.O.U, we don't know what it means but we know what it is. Normal people would call it the Zombie Virus but it's not that simple. These people were never dead, but anyway "Normal" people don't know; they can't know, it's impossible. We are disconnected from everyone else. Any social network or even people we meet can't know our real name. We are assigned aliases, mine is Marlton Johnson. But my real name is Samuel Stuhlinger.

So far we haven't managed to invent the cure, but we were close. My wife played a key part in that. I wasn't allowed a wife but I didn't care. She was a journalist named Rachel. She never trusted me when I told her about work, she probably knew because of her investigative skills. So she followed me into work and into "The Bunker" and found our team, Fourth Echelon. She had a look at one of the "Infected" and it bit her arm. She caught L.O.U instantly so we tied her to a table with steel restraints.

She writhed in agony and I couldn't bear to see her like that so I quickly developed a cure that might have worked. As I mixed chemical after chemical the steam rose and the liquid fizzed. The others just watched as I was in a mad dash to create this cure. As I injected it into her she stopped. Suddenly she grabbed my arm and screamed what sounded like, "You will die!" She was lifeless. My wife, reduced to a limp corpse. I fell to my knees and looked up at her already rotting flesh. L.O.U rotted your flesh within moments and she had fallen victim to this terrible disease. I pulled out my gun, an act of rage? Sadness? I don't know. The emotions were so overwhelming. I pointed it at Mike's head, "Why didn't you help?!" I screamed. Carla, so terrified, released one of the infected and it ran at them. They were infected before I could pull the trigger.

I ran past them as they rolled around the floor slowly rotting. I looked back and saw one of them look at me and whimper "H-h-help me!" I drew my pistol and aimed at it's mutated face, "I'm sorry." BANG! I turned and ran. I heard screams and the infected sprinting after people that were in a mad dash for the exit.

I made it outside and while still running I grabbed my phone out of the pocket of my jacket. "Hello, we have a code Xephos, I repeat code Xephos! Moving to secondary point to detonate 'Cleanser'" I shouted while sprinting down a side road.

"Negative, it's not ready, DO NOT USE THE CLEANSER! That is a direct order, we will bring in an air strike ETA 5 minutes hold em' off" The General screamed. I hung up and ran the other way. After roughly 3 minutes of running I found the emergency shelter that I had built in case this exact thing happened. I dived inside and sealed the door shut. I was safe for now.

I heard the plane pass over head then the ground shook with such magnitude I fell of my seat. I heard the explosions. What if it killed everyone here? I need to look for survivors.

I slowly emerged from my haven and looked around. I could hear car alarms and distant screams; poor people didn't even have a clue about what was going on. There were half destroyed buildings and spots of fire everywhere. I walked towards the centre of the city, It would take me long, it was only a few miles.

It was getting dark so I moved into a house and set up camp. I used my brown overcoat for a blanket and tried to sleep. I had only just drifted off when I heard movement. I sprung to my feet and grabbed my knife. Dropping into a fighting stance I scanned around for movement. Suddenly someone walked out from round the corner, "don't hurt me!" he cried desperately. "Don't worry, you are safe with me." I replied as I lowered my knife.

"No! You don't understand, there are these things! One bit my daughter but I got away." Just at that moment an infected ran into the room and the man screamed. I reacted almost instantly and threw my knife inbetween it's eyes. As I walked over to collect my weapon the man noticed my gun. "Who the hell are you man?" He asked inquisitively.

"My name is Samuel Stuhlinger. I used to treat these things until they escaped, they took my wife and now she's dead just like your daughter. The air strike was meant to kill them but I guess they managed to survive. Now I need to get to something called the 'Cleanser' it is our only hope of getting rid of these things." I explained.

"I'm Nathan, Nathan Drake," He said slightly calmer than before.

"Ok then Nate. We need to get out of here, now these things are here we can't stick around."

I walked towards a hole in the side of a building and jumped down into a roll. "Hurry up Nate!" I called.

"Hey some people aren't secret ninja assassins you know!" He shouted down as he came downstairs and through the door.

"Right we need to go this way" I said pointing to my right. "We should make it by sunrise.

We headed off toward the secret underground facility in which the cleanser was kept. "We should get some food." I said turning back to Nathan. "We've been walking for hours and could use a break."

"I think there's a café nearby. Nobody will be there but there might be a few supplies" He replied sounding proud of himself. "Follow me."

When we arrived at the café I searched the kitchen for food, It was almost all gone but there were a few packets of bacon and some slices of bread. "Get some rest while I sort this food out." As Nate lay down to sleep I started to cook the bacon. As it was cooking I looked outside and saw the infected. They had caught somebody and were ripping them to shreds. They finished and looked up at me. Instinctively I pulled out my pistol and shot 2 bullets into each of them. They fell to the floor in a heap. The gunshots had startled Nathan and he was up on his feat.

"You're gonna need something to protect yourself, here take my knife." I said, throwing my knife an inch next to his head so that it hit into the wall next to him. He froze in his place then smiled. Turning to pull the knife out of the wall.

"Here foods ready." I said as I passed him a plate of food.

"Where did you get the coffee?" he asked.

"Found some out back." We continued the meal in silence.

We reached the Underground train station. "Down here," I said while slowly going down the stairs with Nate quickly following. It was pitch black so I lighted a glow rod from my pocket. The green light emanated from the rod and everything was glowing an ominously. I could make out small groups of infected in the distance that quickly scattered when they saw the light. "Be careful, there are a lot of them down here." I warned.

"So what does this thing do exactly?" Nathan questioned.

"To be honest with you it's basically a nuke, but the radiation shouldn't affect humans only people that are infected with L.O.U."

"So there is a chance that it will kill us to?" He said starting to get panicked.

"Yes! But it would save the rest of man kind." I walked into a small room and saw half eaten bodies on the floor. "Behind you!" Nathan screamed. I turned to watch him slash the infected in the neck, blood flowed out of the wound as it fell to the floor.

"This isn't how they operate," I said, "They attack in groups not one at a time. Maybe they have changed tactics and he was just the scout. Get ready" Just as I said this about a thousand of them ran through the door. We turned and ran through the other exit and onto the train track. I turned and shot at a few but I would run out of ammo before I killed all of them.

In the distance I saw the panel to the secret facility. I ran as fast as I could, while throwing glow sticks down so Nathan could see. He was slightly behind me but I was certain that he wasn't dead. I quickly made a right turn and punched a code into a machine next to the panel. It slid open I shot at the infected as Nathan ran toward it. "Get in!" I shouted while firing a bullet into the eye of one that almost got him. I went to shoot another but I was out of ammo so I threw my gun at it. It knocked it over and tripped up a few others. He dived inside and I rolled in straight after and pressed a button to close the door. Our hearts were racing. "Are you mental!? We almost died!" He screamed at me.

"Well we didn't so keep on moving, we're getting close now." I said as I stood up and walked forward still clutching my glow stick. I walked into a huge open room and hundreds of lights flickered on.

In the centre of the room was a screen, a giant screen that was wired into the floor. It turned on and an image of the General appeared.

"If you are watching this then L.O.U has broke out among Manhattan. Our only hope is this machine called 'The Cleanser'" Just as he said this loads of computers and other complex machines slowly rose up from the floor. "This machine will kill _all_ life other than humans. In theory this works, in practical terms… Well it's never been tested. But the Human race relies on this, whether it kills you or not it's for a greater cause." Just at that moment the infected broke in through the panel. They charged straight at Nathan who ducked and weaved slicing at their bodies. I dodged one, then another. I had no weapon. I was going to die. An infected came within centimetres of my face. I could smell the rotten flesh and blood. Then it fell. Nathan was laid on the floor. Infected. His last act as a human was to throw the knife and save me. I grabbed it and screamed in rage! They killed my wife! They killed my friends! I swung at every single one until they were all dead. Hundreds of bodies in the same room. Including Nathan's. I stared down at him. He stared back blankly. I turned and dropped the knife. More Infected were coming in. I heard their screams. Slowly I reached out. My hand on the button to activate it. "This is for you Rachel," I whispered as I pressed down. A blue shockwave came from the centre of the chamber; I turned to see the infected reduced to lifeless husks.


End file.
